Reasons to be cheerful

I've had a lovely half term with Myf but today she's off with her Dad for his half of the week.  So it's definitely a good time to focus on the good as I often find it tough when she's not here.

We spent the morning yesterday making up a picnic and flapjacks-Myf managed to get some golden syrup in her hair and tried cutting a bit out-I ended up giving her an impromptu hair cut that needs some evening out but I think looks ok?  She likes it which is the main thing :-D

We took a trip to Cardiff Castle in the afternoon-I've not been before and I saw online that they were having a 'meet the birds of prey' event which I managed to get tickets for.  We didn't get to see the birds fly but the guys running the event were lovely and chatty and clearly adored their work.  Myf got to hold a Little Owl and I said hi to an Eagle Owl :-)  (Myf had her photo taken next to the Eagle Owl but her face is priceless, she thought he was going to try and nibble her hood!)

The weather was a bit wet for a picnic but we had a nice time looking around

As it was our last night of the holiday, I treated us to a little trip to Lush and bought us a fresh face mask so we had an evening of pampering with face masks, nail polish, cuddles and a DVD.
Myf chose 'The Worst Witch' and halfway through, she disappeared upstairs for ten minutes.  She reappeared like this...

We spent today in the company of a very dear friend-had a lovely long walk around the park, took Myf to the swings and then had a trip around Pontypridd's little museum before I dropped her off with her dad.  I miss her already!  But I'm so grateful for the beautiful Spring weather, the fun days out and for making the most of our time.

Hope you are all having a lovely week!

Half Term :-)

Half term this week and Myf is spending the first half of the week with me before she goes to her Dad on Wednesday.  We took a trip to Techniquest on Saturday that was a lot of fun

We went swimming today and are going to Cardiff Castle tomorrow and then a quiet day before she goes :-(

In other news, the blanket is almost finished!  I'm working on the border now which may take a few days as I want to try one from the crochet border book.  Myf very kindly has done some blanket modelling :-) apologies for the poor photo quality, I couldn't wait till daytime for better picture quality!

I HAD to lay it out after doing the first border round (hdc clusters in dark brown)

A rare photo of me actually crocheting!  I'm going with a cream for the second round-Myf suggests going with a shade of blue for the bulk of the border (not sure yet whether I want to stick with the Autumn palette)

I used single crochet to join the squares-I like the ridged effect as well how sturdy it is.  Someday, I may use it on the right side of the squares so I get to enjoy that ridged effect as well as all the colours!


Hopefully won't be long now!

Reasons to be Cheerful...

There's been lots of ups and downs at work and with Myf being poorly plus some unpleasantness with her father but we have plenty of reasons to be cheerful this week!

First and foremost, Myf is a LOT better-thank you for all your kind well wishes :-)  We spent some time yesterday with some crochet-she really wants to be able to make a granny square so I was showing her how to do single crochet and double crochet stitches and getting her started on a granny square

(Forgive the mess in the background!)

Over the weekend, we had a visit from a dear friend (the one I made the rune pendant and poncho for)
She saw one of the Owls I made in this post here and loved it so much I offered to make one for her and her partner :-)
(My price was a photo of her holding them in her new poncho...)

Myf also has been busy making me this beautiful bracelet-she loves finger knitting!  The other two chunkier bracelet are made with a knitting nancy :-)  She's so creative!

There's a viewing tomorrow but thankfully, as we'd done a lot of tidying for our guest, there's very little to do apart from some surface decluttering :-)

Our cats have been most amusing (minimal fighting this week) and Myf has had fun with the camera again...

Rascal is the cuddle monster but Artemis has been giving him a run for his money this week!


Hope you're all having a lovely week?  What has made you smile today? :-D

Lots of photos...

I have a poorly daughter at the moment-she's been up and down with a nasty viral bug and has spent most of the morning being sick :-(  She's currently tucked up in bed and hopefully she'll be feeling better when she wakes up.

We spent some time this weekend laying out the squares for the Sleeping Forest Blanket-Myf has taken some photos for your enjoyment ;-)

I played around with the arrangement for the next day until it felt like the colours were flowing properly then I pile them up into groups of 14 (vertical strips) and used a little piece of wire to mark the end square so that I crochet the squares together in the order I want!

Over the last couple of days, I've been busy getting some of them crocheted in strips (I crochet the strips together as soon as I finish them) and so far, we have a four-strip wide blanket!

Doesn't it look beautiful already?  Only five more strips to do then it's on to the border!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's Day everyone <3

I'm happily single and expect to remain that way but I don't think romance should be the only focus on a holiday that is supposed to celebrate love.  So along that theme, I want to use my 100th post (yippee!) to celebrate the people I love.

My beautiful girl Myf is my absolute angel-never realised how much I could love someone and can't imagine my life before her

My gorgeous sisters, who I miss so much and wish I lived nearer to

You inspire me :-)

I adore my nieces and nephew completely

As well as my brothers in law (although I don't have a decent photo of them!)

My parents-we've had ups and downs but we have a strong relationship now that I cherish all the more for the work it's taken :-)

My fur babies-they're both so different but they bring us so much joy

My friends and chosen family-both in real life and online-I'm so grateful to have you all in my life <3

Wishing you all the love in the Universe!